Sonic Adventure: Chaos Complex
Sonic Adventure: Chaos Complex is a cancelled third-party Sonic game that was created by Quarantine Development. In production since 2003, the game was set to be released sometime in 2004 but was promptly cancelled. Had it been released, it would've been for the GameCube and XBOX only. Development The game started in 2003. After noting the success of their previous title Green Jean, they decided to experiment with existing properties. They garnered interest in the Sonic franchise, particularly with the Sonic Adventure titles and wanted to produce a third entry themselves. Quarantine insisted on developing the game and only showing it to SEGA when they felt it was complete to avoid potential interference. After learning of the project, SEGA of Japan and SEGA of America immediately came onto the project and gave conflicting demands. SEGA's CEO Yuji Naka was initially pleased with what Quarantine came up with, but other representatives wanted to include Sonic Team on the development team. Quarantine did work with some programers from Sonic Team to get help adjusting to key mechanics, hence them getting a credit on the game's demo. The poor cooperation between Quarantine and Sonic Team, along with the Sonic voice cast shuffle with SEGA demanding they use the second Sonic voice cast (which especially proved fatal to the game given how far ahead the voice recording was at the time) and Quarantine nearly being forced off the project out right in favor of bringing in Sonic Team to rework the entire game, Quarantine folded the project and took all the progress made with them. Developers on Quarantine's end claimed that SEGA felt intimidated by the fact that they were able to come up with a Sonic game that could be within the same vein as other then released Sonic games. They based this claim on the fact that other rejected Sonic games were primarily produced by third-party developers, and given that SEGA became a third-party publisher following the demise of their console production, possibly feared that they would no longer have any say in their flagship series. The project was never announced to the public and was kept quiet since then. Former Quarantine programers kept data for the game on reserve for preservation purposes. It was discovered on an XBOX Development Kit and built using the RenderWare engine (a decision made on the off-chance SEGA wanted to make the game a multi-platform title had it been approved.) An anonymous source acquired said XBOX Development Kit and released footage of the game onto YouTube. The game itself is beatable, with the gameplay portions being completed, but lacking graphical artifacts in the later levels. The final boss was the last to be worked on and was only put in at the behest of SEGA. The only voice acting in the game comes from Sonic, namely through reactions while in the speed sections, and his voice was provided by Jason Spisak. Plot The game would've centered on Sonic traveling to different dimensions to retrieve "Chaos Herbs" for his sidekick Tails after he succumbs to immense chaos radiation from one of his experiments. Sonic has to contend with Eggman along with his other dimension counterparts, as well as a mutated Tails in the end of the game. Sonic is aided by a young amnesiac girl whom Eggman kidnapped for use as a test subject. Reaction Upon reaching the internet, the game at first garnered mixed reception, but gained better retrospective reviews following SEGA's new direction with the character, winning favorable responses from Sonic Adventure fans who complimented the more straightforward control mechanics and fluid gameplay. Many Sonic fans consider this game to be preferable to those in Sonic's current direction, especially when compared to games like the infamous Sonic 2006 which spurred fans' loss of faith in the series. Fans have speculated what the Sonic series would've been like if they were handled by third-party developers, given how close Quarantine's game is to a traditional Sonic game.Category:Sonic The Hedgehog Category:Cancelled games Category:SEGA Games